Days of Transcendence
by alberonas
Summary: Jellal's always been a sort of wallflower without many friends, and he's been fine with that. But when he moves to Fairy Tail Academy, leaving his best friend Erza, whom he has mixed feelings for, things are going to change. Because down the hall is Lucy, a crazy but utterly one-of-a-kind mess in herself, and she is about to change his life. Based off Looking for Alaska. Slow JeLu.
1. Chapter 1

**I know you're all going to kill me for not updating Sea of Runes or FTLG. I'm really so very sorry, but this idea just popped up randomly out of nowhere, and I felt like I had to put it down. This is kinda new for me, so please forgive my simplicity.**

**This is completely inspired from John Green's **_Looking for Alaska**.**_

* * *

"Jellal!"

I immediately turned my head towards the direction of the source of the voice of the caller—literally every time someone calls my name, it's a bad thing.

Except for when it's Erza. I've known her long enough to recognize her voice anywhere, which is something pretty special—even after all this while of staying here, every day seems to me like it's the first day of school. I've stayed long enough to know a couple of classmates—"friends", I suppose—that I hang out with just to get any unnecessary attention off of me (from my experience, I've deduced that rumors are demons and magnets all the same—they call way too much attention for the likes of me), but that doesn't help much.

"Erza," I replied, turning around to face the redhead, who was currently picking her way across the other end of the courtyard. I felt a wan smile spreading across my face. I couldn't help it; she was one of the most amazing girls I had ever met, and was bound to be the most wonderful friend I'd ever meet in my life (but you see, I was wrong, but that's another story to tell another time). She stopped in front of me and beamed, her face flushing slightly.

"Jellal," she repeated. She seemed rather out of breath, for some reason. "Is it true?" she asked, as to which I quickly responded, "Is what true?"

"That you're leaving in two days."

I sighed. Of course. I should've expected that she'd ask me that. "It is, Erza. Didn't I tell you at the beginning of the semester? You've been asking me that question every day for the past week now." I chuckled lightly.

Her face fell slightly, but she kept her smile, which had now turned thoughtful. Her downcast eyes stared up at me. "I'm sorry," she said, "but, Jellal, I-"

"Erza! Erza!" One of the female population—Hana Adachi, was it? Well, at least she was a friend of Erza's, probably—interrupted, her glasses bobbing up and down on her nose as she jogged up to the two of us. "You've got to come. These two guys—Wang Chanji and Joey, I think?—are getting into a brawl in classroom A105! Oh-" Hana's attention turned to me for the slightest moment. "You too, Jellal. It's almost classtime. I never took you guys for the type for PDA and sappy romantics, but it seems that I've been proven wrong." She made a face.

Erza turned beet red, and she turned back to me, giving me a sheepish look. I patted her on the shoulder as she shrugged hopelessly, and started walking off.

"I'll see you later," she declared as she was tugged away.

"Yeah."

* * *

"So," Ultear, one of my two roommates, commented, "you're leaving today."

"Mhm," I replied simply. I didn't feel like saying much.

It was one of those Sundays where you just want to laze around being a couch potato, but we all knew that for me, it wasn't like that. My other roommate, Meredy, took this opportunity to show up, sauntering out from her bedroom with a lollipop dangling from her mouth and a phone in her hand. She tapped the screen a couple of times and handed the device to me as I picked up a suitcase.

"Here, Jelly," she said, "your girlfriend sent a text to you. You'd better reply before she goes to find another guy to have laughs with."

"Meredy, she is not my girlfriend," I informed her, albeit uselessly. It's better not to mess around with two gossip queens. "Not. My. Girlfriend."

"Ooh la la," Meredy chanted in a singsong tone, "I didn't even say who it was." Beside me, Ultear giggled. I sighed.

"Okay, okay, I give," I said as she reached over and tapped on the message, before reclaiming it and reading the message out loud. She cleared her throat dramatically.

"Ahem- okay, Ul, look!_ Hey Jellal, it's me, Erza. Sorry I'm late; the car'll be here in a couple of minutes. -Erza_. Aw, and to think that I thought there'd be lovey-dovey stuff," Meredy complained.

"Gosh, Jellal. To think that even you'd get girls," Ultear remarked, shaking her head dramatically. "What has this world come to?"

"Jeez, let's just go," I grimaced, and started lugging my suitcase out of the door.

* * *

Magnolia in the summer was probably one of the stuffiest places I'd ever been to, and my new boarding school, Fairy Tail Academy, only had air cons in various classrooms and offices—and none in the dorms. I could literally feel myself getting fried as the four of us stumbled into my assigned room. Ultear wrinkled her nose as she set down a box, making a face while taking in our surroundings.

"Oh my God," she sniffed, "does this place reek or something?" She placed her hands on her hips as she started inspecting the walls.

I felt like I was suffocating just by standing there in the doorway, so I moved farther into the room. "I don't smell anything," I informed her. She raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.

"That's because it reeks of sweaty guys, like you."

I felt rather miffed. "Okay, Ultear," I rolled my eyes. "That was nice."

"I know," she replied. Behind me, Erza shuffled nervously. She had asked to come on the drive with us (I'd told her no, that's okay, but she had insisted—for who knows what reason), and hadn't said a word since the tentative greeting of "hi" she had welcomed me with as she drove up with her car. Seeing this, Meredy yanked Ultear back over to where we were silently standing.

"Bye Jelly," she chimed, wrapping her arms around me quickly, and withdrew. Ultear put her hands on my shoulders and faced me with a staredown, before pinching my cheek firmly and stating, "You're sweating and you stink. Take off that jacket, stupid." She ruffled my hair and skipped out of the room with Meredy, calling over her shoulder, "Call us when you can, baby brother! We'll give you time with your girlfriend!" Both Erza and I flushed.

I turned to the redhead after the two had left from our sight. Erza took a small step closer, and out of random instinct, I reached up and slowly tucked a stray strand of scarlet red locks behind her ear. Her head jerked upwards to look at me upon contact, and I quickly drew my hand back.

"Uh, I-I'm, I'm sorry," I mumbled, scratching the back of my neck, but she only smiled peacefully, blushing slightly.

"Jellal," she muttered softly, "it's okay."

"G-God, okay," I laughed awkwardly, only to stop as I noticed her eyes slowly welling with almost invisible tears. "H-Hey, what's the matter?"

"Jellal," Erza whispered, "you know..." She brought a hand behind my head and leaned her forehead against mine. "I don't want to let you go." She paused before slowly continuing, "I know you were never the type for presents, because you thought they were so complicated to get, with all the 'owing-people' stuff, but I just want to give you one last thing before I leave."

I was never good with girls and the like, but, to be frank, I could feel the world blurring and spinning as Erza ever-so-slowly, ever-so-enticingly pressed her mouth against mine. They say that with the first kiss, you can see fireworks, and that the world around you disappears; that's all true. Every single bit of it. Her mouth tasted of strawberries and cinnamon—a strange mixture, you see, but an absolutely perfect mixture—against mine. I felt like I should push her away—for goodness' sake, we were in the middle of a sweaty, stuffy dorm room (okay, maybe her condition wasn't as bad as mine)—but my arms seemed to have frozen in place by my sides. I made no move to push her away as my feelings and heartbeat went haywire.

It was all beautiful. All of a sudden, this world seemed so much more beautiful; like I hadn't spent all these years living in vain or anything like that.

And it seemed like the moment would last forever, when suddenly—

"Woah! PDA!" a new, completely unfamiliar voice burst out loudly, forcing us to unwillingly, but swiftly, rip apart.

And our beautiful moment ended.

I felt like glaring at whoever interrupted us as Erza and I both turned towards the speaker. In the doorway stood a smirking, shirtless guy—I noticed Erza blushing slightly through my peripheral vision—with a strange tattoo on his chest, bluish-black messy hair, and a grey cross chain or something. He grinned at our flushing faces. "Hey," he greeted casually, as if he had not seen us just exchanging mouth DNA, "sorry, dude. Did I interrupt anything?" He stretched.

Erza wisely chose to avoid asking where his top had gone. "Who are you?"

"Me?" the brunet raised an eyebrow, still grinning, "I'm Gray. Gray Fullbuster. Are you guys moving in?"

"Us?" Erza stuttered. "Uh, no! Nononono! It's just him."

"Oh, so you're the newbie," said Gray, "and you and your girlfriend were just giving each other goodbye sex or something?"

"Oh God no." Erza almost fainted.

"I'm kidding," Gray enunciated. "Okay, well, I suspect you two've been at it for quite a while now, and I saw two other girls in the parking lot—they glared at me, like what the heck—probably waiting for someone, so yeah."

Erza turned back to me and gave me another peck on the cheek. "Bye," she muttered at me. "I... yeah." She backed away from me—I resisted the yearning to reach out and pull her in again—and quickly left without another word, closing the door quietly behind her as she fled. I gazed after her, and probably would've continued to stare dumbly at the now closed door if my apparent roommate Gray hadn't interrupted by waving his hand in front of my face.

"Oi," he said, drawing my attention. He pointed at my abdomen. "You look like crap, so you'd better clean yourself up right now. You've probably already sweated up a puddle on the carpet."

I quickly took the hint and made my way to the shower.

* * *

"'Kay, so," Gray explained informally as we strolled through the halls. Apparently, while I'd been showering, he'd managed to find himself a plain white T-shirt to put on, which was honestly good enough. "At Fairy Tail, we hang out with who we like. But there are always precautions," he warned. The way he so casually referred to the school was rather shocking for me, but I didn't point that out. "It's pretty self-explanatory, really. The classes can be rigorous if you make them to be; but still, this school ain't half bad."

I nodded as we made our way into the cafeteria, where it was break because it was the beginning of summer, and classes were over for them. Everywhere we walked, one or two students would recognize Gray and slap him on the back or high-five him or something of that gesture. Students ran amok in the large hall, chasing each other like it was their life goal to do so. Groups large and small huddled around separate tables, gossiping, playing cards, or doing something random that I wouldn't care to stick my nose into.

"Gray!" A short girl with cerulean blue locks and a short, simple orange dress stopped as she jogged by to greet him. "Oh gosh, we've been looking everywhere for you! C'mon- wait." She paused to eye me. "New student?"

I had no idea whether I should continue awkwardly standing there or greet her with some random nerdy salutation, but she broke out into a grin. "Great!" She grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. "Hi, I'm Levy! Levy McGarden. Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

"Jellal," I replied shortly. Seriously, I didn't want to screw anything up on my first day. I still have a standard, if anything, to keep for myself. "Thanks," I quickly added. Levy laughed.

"Okay, so you're quiet! I like you already, heh," she chimed, and dragged the two of us over to a table nearby that was crowded with people. Many looked up and welcomed both Levy and Gray as we neared.

"Who's that behind you?" asked a bossy-looking brunette with glasses and a strange magenta, fur-lined fan. It's not nice to make assumptions, but I could tell from the confident tone in her voice. "Newbie?"

"He's a MAN!" A guy with spiky white hair and deeply tanned skin cheered. Glasses Lady whacked him on the head with her fan. Okay, so she was violent too. I made a mental note to stay a little ways from her. Gray grinned and swung his arm around my shoulders amicably.

"This," he introduced dramatically, "is Jerard. Jerard, uh... Fernando?"

"Jellal," I amended uselessly. "Fernandes."

"Rightrightright. Jellal Fernandes."

A girl with short white hair gazed at me curiously. Was it just me, or did she bear some magical resemblance to that giant tanned guy? "He's rather cute," she remarked, giggling. "Sorry, I'm just saying." Beside her, another girl with dark blue irises and sea blue curls glared.

"Perhaps, but nobody shall ever compare to Juvia's Gray-sama!" she declared furiously, eyes shining. "Another love rival!" she glowered at me menacingly as she noticed Gray's arm around my shoulders. Many others glanced at her.

"So welcome, Jellal, was it?" yet _another_ white-haired girl—this time with long hair and a tiny pigtail right above her forehead though—in a kind of plum-colored dress greeted. I nodded at her. "Okay. Welcome to Fairy Tail! Do you have a girlfriend?"

Before I could say to her that no, I did not have a girlfriend—I wasn't planning to tell anyone about me and Erza's moment,_ anytime_—and please, don't ask that kind of question because I have nothing to do with girls and I am not a ladies' man, Gray cut in, "Yeah! And I saw them making out in our dorm room like, twenty minutes ago! Damn, newbie and a hot girl and PDA, all mixed into one. You guys should've seen it." The others laughed, and Long White Haired Girl squealed so loudly and excitedly that my eardrums hurt.

"No-" I started.

"Man, you are gooooood," a guy with a giant pompadour of hair atop his forehead snickered, thumping me across the back as we sat down in two empty plastic chairs. "Are you a ladies' man like Loke or somethin'?" A wisp of smoke drifted out from the pipe in his mouth.

"Gosh, guys, don't confuse the poor boy with all these names!" a barely-dressed brunette with a barrel of alcoholic material appeared next to us, and squished in beside me on the chair. She ruffled my hair. "I'm Cana," she smirked. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Gray burst out laughing.

"God, dude, you must totally be a ladies' man," he chuckled, "Lucy'd love you." I was pretty sure my brain cell numbers would start minimizing by the millions with all these names and people. My brain capacity still does have a limit, you know. Levy? White Haired Girl Number One and Two? Tanned Guy? Cana? Violent Glasses Lady? Crazy Blue-Haired Freaky Girl? Gray? Loke? Smoker Dude? Oh God. And now there was a Lucy?

* * *

I gulped nervously as I stopped in front of the door of Room 329, a small slip of paper clutched in between my left forefinger and thumb, and raised my fist to knock.

"Hey, who is it?!" a loud female voice called from inside. I glanced at my still-raised fist. I honestly believed I still hadn't knocked yet. I swallowed once more and opened my mouth, but the voice came again.

"Oh gawd okay okay, jeez. It's open. If you're Mira with my cake, Gray with my to-be-heard news, or Lisanna, Wendy, or Levy with gossip or whatever, come on in. If you're not, go the hell away because I'm goddamn busy right now!" the female shouted. Nervously, I turned the knob and nudged the door open. Inside, piles of books and randomized objects lay in messy piles in random corners of the walls. Various things like unclipped manuscripts, papers with daisies on them, and a couple of notebooks and pens were strewn across the white, carpeted floor. As soon as I stepped in, pushing the door shut with my heel, I tripped over an empty can of Red Bull and, unfortunately for me, clumsily ended up sprawled on the floor on my stomach. I cursed lightly as I hit the ground with a _thunk_.

To my right, the bathroom door was flung open, and a figure stepped out and padded right in front of me. The person crouched down beside me, and I found myself face to face with the prettiest blonde I had ever seen. She scrutinized me carefully, raising an eyebrow. To be honest, I felt like the dumbest person in the world just lying there, my eyes staring up at her as she leaned in closer.

"Who're you?" she demanded. "I haven't seen you around before." Noticing the note in my hands, she plucked it from my fingers, unfolded it, and started reading to herself right in front of me, as if I didn't exist anymore.

"OH MY GOD!" she suddenly shrieked. I reached backwards to massage my ears. She turned back to me. "So, who're you?"

"Jellal..." I muttered, planting my face into the carpet tiredly, and pushed myself up to sit on my knees, at level with her.

"I'm Lucy," she said. "And oh gawd, you were making out with a girl in your new dorm room?"

So much for first impressions. "I was not making out with her," I informed matter-of-factly, dusting myself down. How could such a tiny piece of paper hold that, I had no idea. Gray had given me the paper to go and give it to Lucy, and told me that I should take the chance to meet her too, since she was one of his best friends. _So much for a first meeting_, I thought bitterly. Lucy folded the note and tucked it somewhere into her bra—I flushed—and glanced at me once more. I suddenly started feeling very self-conscious.

"You're funny," she stated, like the thought had popped out of thin air (and I suspect that it did). "You aren't even planning on getting up, are you?"

"Oh, um," I said. "Why did you put the paper in... _there_?" I jerked my head towards the direction of her chest as subtly as I could manage without seeming like a pervert. Instead of slapping me across the room or acting all flirty after thinking I'd noticed her_ that_ area like any normal girl—from what I'd seen—would do, Lucy rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Because," she explained, "it's important to me."

I did not see how the logic worked in that, but I smiled a little uneasily along with her.

* * *

**Gosh okay. I am officially the world's worst person, and one of the worst writer's along with that, but I really do hope you all forgive me and tell me your opinion on this. :(**

**I've never written from a guy's perspective (and my stories are all in third person too), so I'm totally new at this. So sorry, once again.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Please note that there is some swearing.**

* * *

"Oh my God," Lucy cried as she, Gray, and I sauntered down the hallway. "Just. Ugh. Oh my God!" She waved her hands around excitedly. "I can't believe this. Hey, so, Jellal," she started, turning to me, her blonde hair flying, "I bet you're in at least one class with me, right?"

I had no idea, but I nodded just in case she wanted to check my schedule. I was far too lazy to go back the way I came from to get it for her. "Y-"

"Okay, whatever then!" she interrupted cheerily. I made a face. "God, let's just go back to the cafeteria! Mira had better have my cake, because holy _fuck_, if she does not have my cake, I am so gonna go all rage-mode-y."

"Jeez, Lucy," Gray interjected, "why so excited?"

Lucy looked at him like she was those kinds of guys who're hermits that've come out of their caves for the first time in forever, all squinty-eyed and incredulously staring. "Holy crap," she stared at him, "what is wrong with you, Gray?! It's _cake_ we're talking about here. _Caaaake_. Like _hellooo_, have you been living in a _cave_ for these past few years? Don't tell me you forgot what Mira's cake tastes like! And her brownies. Shit, food porn. Ugh. I'm getting all salivated just thinking about it." I hid a smirk. Talk about ironic, although my sense of irony is kind of off.

"Okay!" Gray surrendered, holding his hands up. "Yeesh. Fine, let's go get cake."

"Um..." I narrowed my eyes in the blonde's direction as she bounced off ahead of us.

"Don't get me wrong," Gray interjected, "but Lucy has her high moments too."

I'd predicted that classes would be a cinch or something, but apparently I was dead wrong. The teachers here were not only strict, but often gave us plenty of homework and essays. There was many an occasion that I thought I would fall right asleep at my desk. But still, I suppose not everything was bad. I wasn't failing any subjects or anything—my grades were never bad—and I had started fitting in rather nicely. And I was in two or three classes with Lucy, and a bunch of others with Gray or some other guy or girl who was at the table on the first day I'd arrived.

I turned onto my side as I smushed my face into the pillow, and ever-so-slowly cracked open my right eye. It was so silent that I could clearly make out Gray's inhaling and exhaling as he slept peacefully on the bunk above me. Stretching, I sat up and wondered why I had even woken up in the first place, only to stop mid-stretch when I heard a faint plucking sound coming from down the hallway.

The clock read 4:05 A.M. as I carefully opened the door, pulling a clean white shirt on drearily, and started stumbling down the hallway to where the music came from. I had no idea what was compelling me to even care—for all I knew, it could just be some random dude making another of those crazy scientific invention projects—but it had sounded so peaceful, so calming, that I couldn't help myself.

Before I could recognize and stop to think the situation through, I found myself face-to-face with a now-familiar door. The sounds could be heard from the other side of the wood. I sighed, exhaling deeply, and raised my fist once more, but lowered it as the voice from inside drifted out from inside. "Just come in."

Obligingly, I turned the knob and poked my head in slowly, afraid that I might be interrupting something; then again, there couldn't possibly be anything to interrupt at four in the morning. The room's messiness and clutter had not been tidied up at all, although there was a shortage of empty cans. In the center of the floor sat Lucy, cross-legged, absentmindedly plucking out a peaceful tune on a large, decorated guitar that was strapped onto her back and staring off into space and at the wall. Beside her lay a plate with a small piece of unfinished chocolate cake. The blonde turned her head toward me wearily, her eyes half-closed. I stepped inside.

"How long have you been playing?" I questioned her. She glared tiredly at me.

"What, no hello's or any 'hey, Lucy, you're sure lookin' mighty fine today's?" she proposed sarcastically.

I sent a yawning grin her way. "Sure," I replied, but in all honesty, even sitting on the ground with messy hair and just ultra-short shorts and a thin, cropped tank top on, I thought she looked gorgeous. "Sure." Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know I look like crap, thanks," she mumbled, her head lolling backwards with her eyes closed. She patted an empty spot beside her. "'Kay, whatever. Come on in and sit over here." I sat, and she held up the plate of cake to my face. "Care for some cake?"

"Why not?" I shrugged, and gratefully accepted the paper plate. I turned to her once more. "Um, any forks?"

Lucy glanced at me sideways, and chuckled. "Gee, your mind's already running, huh," she remarked, "even at four in the morning. Smart boy. My own brain doesn't even turn on until class starts." She ruffled my hair. "I think my spare disappeared, so just use mine." I felt myself suddenly craving the chocolate cake that she had left, so I complied and pulled out the tiny plastic fork wedged partly within the spongey chocolate layers.

"Yeah, okay." We sat in silence for a while, just the two of us leaning against a large, tomato red bean bag cushion, when a couple more questions suddenly came to me. I straightened. "Hey," I started, drawing Lucy's attention.

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you have an extra?" I motioned at the fork in my hand.

"Oh," Lucy muttered. "Who knows. I think Mira said something about you coming over to steal some cake."

My brows creased in confusion. "What? Why?"

"Ugh, who knows." Her fingers half-heartedly brushed over the strings of her guitar, letting out a series of soft intonations that resonated in the air around us quietly. I set down the plate.

"Hey," I repeated, "your guitar."

"Oh, yeah?" She straightened up too, her legs uncrossing. She repositioned the instrument snugly in her lap.

"Can you play something? Like, what you just played?" I requested. She broke into a smile, looking at me amusedly.

"Alright, sure then, mister," she replied, and started slowly plucking, her eyes still focusing on me. The atmosphere around us seemed to be filled with the music that she was playing, and I leaned back once more, resting my head on the bean bag. "Nice song," I remarked. "What's it called?"

"I dunno," she responded, staring up at the empty ceiling. "I... never bothered to find out."

"Really? That's it?"

"Yep. Expect any more?"

"Well," I concluded thoughtfully, "it's a nice song. Either that, or you're good at playing, but it's a nice song. Keep on playing?"

"Forget it," Lucy shook her head and set down her guitar. "We were almost finished anyway."

"Oh." I rested my head against the saggy bean bag. "Where'd you get this song though?"

"Somewhere." Lucy let out a long exhale. "I will also tell you that in the future. What time is it?"

I pivoted my head around, suddenly feeling exhausted once more, and squinted at the clock torturously, as if my eyes had suddenly become crossed over the past few seconds. "Oh. It's 4:25," I informed her, and flopped back down into my previous place. Lucy scooted a millimeter closer to me, her thigh pressed against my outstretched leg. I swear I was blushing, but I don't think she noticed as she averted her gaze to my face. "Classes are starting soon."

"What, in like, five hours? Yeah, sure, Mister Nerd Boy, go ahead and ditch me for your damn boring classes with Mr. What's-His-Name. Sure, sure. Shoo then." She lightly pushed me, but I still fell onto my side, chuckling. She ruffled my hair, her tongue stuck out as she uncrossed her legs and threw her instrument aside carelessly. I stopped.

"What're you doing?" I acknowledged cautiously, sitting up. She eyed me and offered her hand as she moved into a squatting position, and let out an exasperated sigh when I raised a confused eyebrow. I could literally hear her mentally facepalming. Whatever she does.

"God, Jellal," she grumbled, "let's go!"

"Huh?" Lucy yanked me up and tugged me towards the doorway, but I stopped her briefly. She swiveled around and expectantly grinned, "Yeees?"

"N-Nothing." I didn't get where the heck we were going, but I followed her through the door and down the hallways. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

* * *

Nothing could go wrong.

I ducked under the low arch of a weathered stone bridge to avoid getting a mild concussion—we were moving at a relatively fast pace—as Lucy ran in front of me, her sunshine yellow flip flops crunching against the small pebbles and who-knows-what-else that could be located in a now-dry stream. It's weird; you can't exactly see sunshine or anything, because it's just light, and you can't exactly see light, but we know that it's there and shining down upon us. It's not like the Sun is completely yellow or anything, but when we talk about the color yellow, we describe like sunny. I wonder why. And I wondered why I was even thinking these thoughts just by looking at some random girl's pair of foamy, sunshine-y flip flops.

An immaculately sexy girl, at that.

And there I go again with the sunshine and sexiness. I really don't know.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Lucy slapped my chest excitedly and gestured to the sight in front us.

It wasn't some grand, magnificent spectacle like I'd expected—although I should've made sure to lower my expectations anyway—just a teeny tiny lake with somewhat clear water and stale yellow grass. I swore I could see my runaway train of thought chugging away down a line of imaginary tracks at top speed. Oh well. But instead I turned to Lucy, who currently was standing with her legs spread wide apart and with her balled hands on her hips like she'd conquered the land and was now standing atop a hill watching the rotting dead bodies of the enemy with a victorious smirk plastered onto her face, and asked quietly, "So... what's this?"

She groaned, pretending to claw at her face in frustration. "Oh Jellal," she muttered, tutting, "my dear, dear Jellal. This is not _any_ lake you see here."

"Well, of course not," I remarked sarcastically. "Because obviously nothing in this entire universe is _exactly_ the same."

"Oh, sweetie," she drawled, and I could hear the dry condescending-ness dripping so loudly that I swore it could have created water waves on the pond. Yeah. Just _that_ effective. "You're getting there. Unfortunately, poor wittle Jewall is still rather immature and baby-like—" I scowled at her. "—to understand something this simple about something as beautiful as this lake."

_Unfortunately_ for_ her_, the only thing beautiful here was... her. Oh. Well, that was smooth. "So?"

"_So_," Lucy started loudly, "just look." I looked, everywhere, but saw nothing particular. "Um? What?" I questioned as she stood with her army-battle-victory pose once more. She groaned obnoxiously loudly.

"As you can see, Jellal, this is no ordinary lake. Honestly, it's special because it's not special. There's nothing beautiful about this lake—" She plopped down on a conveniently large stone nearby. "—but that's exactly what makes it beautiful. People only tend to find beauty in things that stand out. But I mean, beauty doesn't exist, really, does it?" She plucked a few longer grass strands and started nimbly threading them through one another, and reached out for several pure, white daisies. "We'll never see something like this. There's nothing unique here. The water? It's not even that clear. The woods? They don't even have inhabitants, really. Or maybe that's just because it's so quiet over here that the little squirrels and birds all flew away to somewhere more fascinating. You see? It's special. We'll never get tired of it because there's nothing to get tired of."

"I..." I remarked, but found myself at loss for words. I was stuck between understanding and complete oblivion. "Well."

As if she had never mentioned the previous essay-worthy mass of words, Lucy crawled onto her fours and reached out for a smooth, round pebble. She clambered up, and brushed herself down. "Hey, you know how to play skipping stones?" At seeing my blatantly blank expression, I could swear that she thought I was really a Neanderthal in disguise. Not even at the _homo sapiens_ level. "... Oh my God."

I shrugged. "We have other things to do back where I came from."

The blonde didn't bother to hide her open-mouthed stare as she arched a delicate eyebrow. "Pffft," she snorted. "_You_ have 'other things' to do at home? Why am I not seeing that?"

"That's mean." I glared at her.

"I take pride in that," she responded quickly. "I'm not usually mean to people. Aw, that must mean that I like you."

Honestly, I had mixed feelings and thoughts to how to comprehend what she had just said, but I decided to let it go for the time being, seeing that it was _Lucy_ saying all this. Gorgeous, smart, fascinating Lucy. Yep, that's right. A moment of silence passed between us, and I found it as comfortable as I had back at home.

"So," Lucy began, a gleam creeping into her eyes, "let's talk about your girlfriend."

"Again," I enunciated, and sat down beside her with a sigh, "Erza is not my girlfriend, okay?"

"Right, Erza was her name. Tell me about her, then. I'm interested." The subject of Erza—now commonly (and very embarrassingly) referred to as 'the smoking hot chick I was about to bang right there on the sweaty, carpeted floor of our dorm room, had Gray not interfered'—had been lightly tossed around as if it were a wad of scrunched up notebook paper amongst Gray and Lucy's groupie of friends. Lucy dropped a few strands of grass in my lap.

"Um..." Where would I start with this? "Well. Erza is... unique. She's smart—extremely smart." I gazed out across the lake, mentally conjured up an image of Erza, and let myself get lost in my own thoughts. "And... well, she's our student council president. She's sweet, kind, protective and fiercely loyal to those she loves—" That thought made me flush, thinking that I, out of all the possible suitors she could've had, was the one she had chosen to kiss, "—and she's perfect. Literally. Flawless. And she's the most beautiful girl in the world," I admitted. It was strange how openly I could talk about my feelings around Lucy, but, to my gratefulness, she had remained silent for the most part of my small speech. A small, serene smile spread across her face and graced her features.

"Yeah?"

"... Yeah." I let that small moment of complete tranquility settle over us like a quilt—which, technically, isn't the best comparison, seeing that it was sweltering hot in Magnolia.

"I'm glad that you feel that way about her," Lucy remarked. Her eyes glimmered, and suddenly I felt rather uneasy—all this talking about feelings about one girl I'm sure I'm slowly falling head-over-heels for with another drop-dead gorgeous girl who I feel like has an unknown connection with me was disruptive, I suppose. And I meant 'connection' as in... on a _spiritual_ level. Okay, that was lame. Then again, I was always lame.

"Yeah," I confirmed, after a second of silence. "Yeah."

"You know," Lucy bounded back up again, as if her energy had suddenly flown back into her, "I think you're a pretty decent guy."

"Well," I ventured, after another moment of blankness, "thanks. I guess."

"Mhm." She didn't look at me, but instead resorted to gazing out at the lake spread out in front of us like a murky blue canvas. I noted how ugly a shade of blue the water was, and wondered when I'd become _that_ kind of person. Determining things by color... that was so typically _Lucy_.

Not that I minded.

* * *

"I should write a book," is the first thing Lucy declared as she strode straight into our dorm room without even a bother to knock. I'd been taking off my sweater—I wondered where I'd gotten the silly notion to even _wear_ that thing, in respect to the deathly weather over here—and as she nonchalantly paced through the doorway, leaving a resounding _slam_ in her wake, I yanked the hem of my shirt back down over my abdomen with unintended violence and accidentally shoved my discarded article of clothing off the edge of my bunk. Lucy stopped then and delicately raised a brow at me.

"Damn," she made a face, "who knew that under all those baggy layers of disgusting PE shorts and skin and bones, Jellal Fernandes would have some bulk?" Coyly, she sent me a wink, but stuck her tongue out all the same.

"Ha, funny," I threw back, with slight indignation. I mean, I'm sure I had reason to. Blood rushed up to my face. "Though I, as one of the two residents of this room, would appreciate it if you knocked before entering?"

"Pfft," Lucy blew me off like a bug (and I did _not_ like that mental analogy—stupid, stupid me). "Well, appreciate the snarky comments I send your way," she responded, "because there may or may not be compliments. Anyway, where's the future stripper you call your roommate?"

I gestured vaguely at the closed bathroom door the moment our dark-haired accomplice yelled over the sounds of shower water from within, "I'm wounded!"

"I can tell!" Lucy shouted back, and my eardrums began their next throbbing session. I reached for my pillow.

"If I were, theoretically, to grow up and be a stripper, I wouldn't even be here!" Gray continued, rather unnecessarily.

"Well, you're pretty much one already, seeing that you're stark naked all the time!" Lucy flicked the frosted glass window on the bathroom door. I bit back a remark about how, well, that was school property, so no, Lucy, you couldn't go around banging and possibly cracking everything in our dorm room, _please_. But, of course, I instead flopped down onto my mattress with my pillow over my face to block out their sensitive conversation.

"Look at what an innocent little boy you seem like, Jellal," Lucy quipped, her focus now on me. I shifted and sat back up. "Relax. These conversations are really very normal. And plus, we're gonna be late for class."

"Well," I commented, much to even my own chagrin, but began slouching towards my pile of classwork and textbooks, "look who's talking, Miss Who-Cares-Let's-Wake-Up-The-Entire-Neighborhood-At-Four-And-Not-For-Classes."

"You come up with the best nicknames," she snickered.

"Indeed I do. Gray, are you done?" I called to the other, taking note that the shower water had ceased its running. The door flew open, and a towel-clad Gray shuffled out, his hair dripping and sticking out in the most omnidirectional way possible. He grinned and reached for the drawers, very obviously taking his time. Lucy seemed oblivious to his bare abdomen, which somehow made me feel much more reassured than I felt was healthy.

"Yeah, I'm done," he mumbled, smirking as he fumbled through his piles of clothes.

As if she read my jumbled mind, Lucy added, "Not to pile onto the novelty or anything, but this—" She gestured at Gray. "—is a pretty natural occurrence."

"You make me sound like a delinquent," Gray groused.

"Oh, trust me," Lucy offered a rueful smile to no one in particular, "I've already seen far more than preferable. Now let's get to class."

* * *

**Hey guys! I am so, so, so, _so_ sorry for making you all wait. I've really had no inspiration for varying periods of time, but I've updated. ****I'll be updating my Graylu prompt story (even though it's been _months_ since I've updated _that_, too) also.  
P.S. if anyone could think up of a nicer name for this story, I'd really really _really_ appreciate it. If you have suggestions, please feel free to leave them in a review or anything!  
**


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